Keefer Wins At Path Valley

D.J. Keefer, 4-Cylinder Thunder Car winner. It took Steve “The Bear” Bailor awhile to get up to speed in 2013, but once he got the issues resolved he has been unbeatable, winning the last four races he has entered, three of them at Path Valley.

The Mini Stock feature was the first event of the evening. Phil Boden took the lead at the drop of the green and showed the way until Shane Sixeas used an inside move to take control on Lap 5. Sixeas was never seriously challenged after that, including several restarts, and led the way to the checkers for his first career win. For the second week in a row Gary Newell posted a solid second place finish. Kurt Knepper was close behind in third, followed by Mark Grove and Dan Smith. Heat race wins went to Korey Washinger and Gary Dehart.

In the Super Stock feature, Carl Miller led the opening lap only to have his left rear wheel come off on Lap 2. Austin Johnson inherited the lead on the restart and made it pay off by leading the last 19 laps for his first official win in the Super Stocks. Johnson had won earlier this year, but was disqualified for a post-race altercation. This race also featured some postrace problems, but the other drivers were disqualified for being the instigators. Curtis Guyer showed signs of returning to his championship form from one year ago with a second-place finish. Shawn Shoemaker finished third in his Path Valley debut, just ahead of Brad Karns and Ryan Norris. Terry Norris and Guyer claimed heat race wins.

Steve “The Bear” Bailor and Wes Bonebrake started on the front row of the Late Model feature. When the green dropped they raced door-to-door into the first turn. Just when it appeared Bonebrake would get the advantage in the high groove he lost traction and Bailor shot into the lead. That was as close as anyone would get to Bailor. The 25-lap feature went nonstop and Bailor led Bonebrake by half of a lap at the finish. Mike Duck held off a persistent George Dixon for third, and Tim Snare finished fifth. Bailor was also the heat race winner.

Tony Hampton paced the field for the first 12 laps of the 4-Cylinder Thunder Car feature. Just past halfway Hampton’s car started to get loose, and when he slowed to correct on Lap 13, D.J. Keefer was right there and quickly seized the lead. Hampton quickly recovered, staying in second, but could not close back in, with Keefer taking the win by a few car lengths. Kyle Martin drove the car normally raced by Chas Clouser to an impressive third place. Justin Rasp recovered from an early flat tire to finish fourth and Robert McQuade rounded out the top five. The heat race win went to Dalton Mc- Quade.

Justin Williamson took the lead at the start of the Strictly Stock feature and spent the early laps trying to keep ahead of Ricky Weaver. When Weaver got a flat right front tire Eric Boozel took over the pursuit. Boozel wrestled the lead from Williamson on Lap 11 and was pulling away until he also suffered a flat right front tire on Lap 16. Williamson regained the lead at that point and kept it for the rest of the race to keep the string of wins alive between him and his brother, Chris Anderson. Boozel got his tire replaced but not before the restart, and he finished second. Glenn Wilson was the only other car to finish, getting third. Robert Wellman claimed the heat race win.

Coming up next weekend: closed for Fourth of July holiday.

Next race is Friday, July 12, featuring the first visit to Path Valley Speedway by the Steel Block Bandits Late Model series along with the five regular stock-car divisions.